rhetorical question.
I was just watching a short film from 1978 advertising British Rail to Americans.
Well before RS and the shows
Guess where they were selling tickets to? Bath, Edinburgh and York. The route taken by so many visitors to our fair and pleasant Forum... (and they also sold Birmingham).
Maybe where he got his idea?
Tourism to our fair land goes back to at least the 17th Century
Maybe so. In 1978 he was graduating from the University of Washington (majoring in European history and business administration, obviously a productive combination), starting to guide trips to Europe, and getting ready to write ETBD. Must have been paying attention to British Rail and other marketing.
That said, those three cities are all packed with worthwhile sights and conveniently reached by train from London. Maybe BR and RS were just thinking on parallel tracks (pun intended) at the time.
If you look at other tour companies to the UK, they go to.......Bath, York, Edinburgh and London. These have always been popular destinations.
Now, many visitors EXPECT to go to these places - it is almost if they are scared to do something different. Theres a lot more to the UK waiting to be discovered.
I have been to Birmingham far more times than Bath.
I thought the original Thomas Cook package holiday was Leicester to Loughborough - neither of those seem to feature much on this forum.
I have been to Birmingham hundreds of times more than Bath too.
I worked there for over 30 years!
I have also been abroad almost 150 times starting in 1950
Virtually nobody has heard of RS outside of this forum in UK
Just watching an old Michael Palin programme in Chitral in the North Territories in Pakistan. I was there in 1984
